Targeting double dippers

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: By a vote of 86 to 4, the state’s House of Representatives has passed a long overdue fix: It approved (a bill) meant to keep state employees from double dipping: drawing a state pension and a state salary at the same grabby time, instead of really retiring.

Thank you, sensible 86. It’s about time. What the four aginners were thinking, if they were, escapes us.

Arkansas’ taxpayers ought to send a special thank-you, and maybe a Valentine’s card, to Allen Kerr, the state rep from Little Rock who’s been pushing for this reform (and lots of others) for some time.

The catch (there’s always a catch, isn’t there, with the Ledge?) is that some high-paid bureaucrat could still vacate his slot on the state payroll for just six months and, following the retirement system’s loose rules, come back to collect both a pension and a pay check.

Jane English, a state representative from North Little Rock, has a better idea. Her proposal would simply stop state employees from drawing retirement benefits if they’re not retired but still on the job. Problem solved.

So long as we’re going to fix this problem, why not fix it right this time and be done with it?